A secret NES game is hidden inside your Nintendo Switch – but no one can work out how to launch it

Techy Switch owners have found a hidden file called 'flog' runs the classic 1984 game NES Golf

Owners of the Nintendo Switch are attempting to work out an official way to boot a file in their consoles’ firmware labelled ‘flog’, after some tech-wise users managed to launch it and play the game hidden within: the 1984 classic NES Golf.

How do you launch NES Golf on a Switch?

Outside of hacking the console, no one actually knows. According to Switchbrew, it’s possible to launch the file using a ‘cheat code’ method: “setting the system date to July 11 and performing a currently unknown motion with the two Joy-Con.” That said, Switch-playing Redditors are furiously trying and failing to make that work.

So if no one can play it, what’s the point of ‘flog’?

It confirms the presence of an inbuilt NES Emulator on the Switch.

Eurogamersuggests the ‘flog’ file – which includes both NES Golf and the Switch’s in-built NES emulator – would have been “baked into the system’s firmware” as a test, so Nintendo could ensure NES games will run on the Switch.

We already knew Nintendo was planning to launch a paid online service called Virtual Console – which will allow Switch users to play a range of classic NES games on their Switch consoles – and the ‘flog’ revelations appear to confirm that the plan is going ahead.

Though no release date has been set for the Virtual Console scheme, a range of vintage arcade games are coming to the Switch very soon under the ‘Arcade Archives’ initiative. September 27 will see the classic arcade game Mario Bros. landing on the console, with more games set to arrive in future, including Pinball and Super Mario Bros.